End of an era: Marie Callender’s closes first restaurant

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The original Marie Callender's restaurant, a fixture in Orange since 1964, has closed. A second Orange location on Katella Avenue, shown, remains open.

A note on the door at the Orange Marie Callender's said the restaurant closed due to the end of its lease. It's unclear if the restaurant's owner wanted to stay.

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Like all Marie Callender's, the original restaurant had a pie station in the front as you walk in.

The original Marie Callender's restaurant, a fixture in Orange since 1964, has closed.

The Marie Callender's sign along Tustin Avenue is covered. The original Orange location closed May 31, a company spokeswoman said.

Don Callender, the son of Marie, opened the first pie shop on Tustin Street in Orange in 1964.

Don Callender is credited for turning his mom's home-based business into a pie dynasty by opening retail pie shops and restaurants. The first Marie Callender's pie and coffee shop opened in Orange in 1964. It closed last week.

The original Marie Callender's restaurant, a fixture in Orange since 1964, has closed.

Marie Callender’s wholesale pie business started in Long Beach, but its roots as a restaurant and go-to bakery for holiday desserts were in Orange.

Don Callender, son of the well-known piemaker, opened the first Marie Callender’s coffee and pie shop in Orange on North Tustin Street in 1964. Over the weekend, locals dropping in for dessert saw the restaurant’s marquee name covered.

A note on the door said the restaurant, at 574 N. Tustin St., has closed due to “the end of our lease.”

“Thank you for all the love and support. We are very thankful to have shared many meals (& pies), holidays, and memories with you,” the note stated.

A spokeswoman for Perkins & Marie Callender’s, the Tennessee parent company of Marie Callender’s, said the restaurant closed May 31.

“I do not have any additional specifics on the closure other than the fact that it was a lease expiration,” Vivian Brooks said in an email.

Reached Monday, franchisee David Sun said it was a tough decision to close.

“Over the years, our business has been declining, which resulted with the closing of Marie Callender’s,” he said in statement about the Tustin Street location.

He said he was proud to have owned the original restaurant for 12 years. He also operates the Marie Callender’s on Grand Avenue in Santa Ana.

“I feel so sad. That was a part of my life,” he said.

The closure of the restaurant comes as family-style restaurants have struggled to compete with fast-casual concepts, a style of dining that offers made-to-order meals without table service.

Over the years, Mission Viejo-based Marie Callender’s has diminished its presence in Southern California. In 1998, the chain had 156 restaurants; it now operates 61.

In 2015, Marie Callender’s domestic sales dropped 3.5 percent to $148.2 million, according to Technomic, a Chicago-based market research firm. From 2014 to 2015, the number of locations dropped 8.1 percent to 68, Technomic said.

Marie Callender started her home-based bakery in the late 1940s. With the help of her husband, Cal, who did the books, and son Don, she sold the family car for $700 and moved her wholesale baking operations into a World War II Quonset hut stocked with a small oven, refrigerator and rolling pins.

Don Callender is credited with turning his mother’s home-based bakery business into a restaurant and pie dynasty in Southern California. He opened the Tustin Street location in 1964. Other stores in Anaheim and La Habra soon followed.

Having grown the chain to its full potential, Don sold the business in 1986 to Ramada Inc. for about $76 million in cash and stock. The chain has had several owners since.

In 2006, Marie Callender’s merged with Perkins Family Restaurants in a stock-for-stock transaction that combined two of the nation’s best-known bakery-cafe chains. Marie Callender’s at that time had 138 locations.

In 2011, the combined Perkins & Marie Callender’s company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The restructuring prompted 31 Marie Callender’s in eight states to close.

Nancy Luna is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years reporting experience. She's been the Register's restaurant beat writer since 2005, covering some of the biggest players in the industry: In-N-Out, Chipotle, McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Luna also covers dining trends from food halls to food trucks. She writes with authority and is considered an expert in her field.